"...so I told Willy goodbye, the hardest thing I ever had to do, even though I knew deep down that was how it had to be," Jesse continued his story to Jake as the two of them turned onto the Greenwoods' street, "I ran up to the top of the breakwater and begged him to jump to freedom. He wouldn't go at first, but then I remembered the prayer from Randolph's tribe's legend. I started reciting it, and then it happened: Willy jumped right over me into the open ocean. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, and it set him free."
"Incredible," Jake was amazed, "What I would have given to have been there for that."
"When he was going over me, I felt like I was being freed too," Jesse confessed, "Freed from the anger and hate that had been holding me back for years. That finally, I had become a real person, and I can never thank Willy enough for helping me get there. I just hope," his head sagged down, "that somehow it's not the end, that I can get to see him again some time."
His eyes shot back up, noticing a familiar car parked in the Greenwoods' driveway. "Dwight..." he mused, his mind clicking, "Maybe they've found..."
He broke into a jog toward the Greenwoods' front door, Jake having to rush to keep up. "Annie, I'm back," he called, entering the house, "Is Dwight here?"
"Right here, Jesse," his social worker called from the kitchen, where he and Annie had apparently been conversing at the table, "Hope the first day of school went well for you-and that you're going to commit to stay in it," he gave his charge a firm stare.
"Word of honor, Dwight, I won't quit, even if I fail every class," Jesse raised his hand as if under oath, "Why are you here? Have you found my...?"
"Actually, Jesse, this was basically just a checkup meeting with the Greenwoods to make sure everything was still in order from the last time we spoke," Dwight rose to his feet, "But the truth is, we might, just might, have a lead on your mother. Now it's all basically second hand right now: somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who thinks they might have seen her. But we will follow up on it, and if it is her...well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, though, I hope you realize how good you have it here at the Greenwoods."
"I do now, Dwight," Jesse confessed, "I should tell you, after we had the fight after Willy's show failed, I was thinking about leaving. Perry had told me he was leaving town, and I had decided to go with him, thinking I could find my mother with him. If I hadn't seen Mr. Dial's men trying to kill Willy, I might have done it. But looking back now, you'd have been right: it would have been a big mistake."
"Darn right it would have been," Dwight told him sternly, "I've followed Perry's case too, and it's clear to me he's irredeemable, unfortunately. So wherever he is now, good riddance, I say. So I'm glad you didn't throw away what you have here now. In the meantime, let me just say I probably wouldn't have approved of all the laws you broke setting that whale free either, and you're quite lucky the state charged Mr. Dial and not you. And if they had, let's just say I probably wouldn't have helped you." His expression now softened. "Still, I think it was commendable that you did set him free after they tried to kill him. Finally, you thought of someone other than yourself, and I'm proud of that. I think there is hope for you, Jesse."
He gathered up some papers from the table. "Well, I've got a couple more appointments before the day's out; looks like things have smoothed out," he commended Annie, "I'll keep in touch; let me know if anything really good or really bad happens in the next month or so."
"And if it is my mom, you'll let me know, right?" Jesse pressed.
"Promise, Jesse, but don't get your hopes up so high that you'll be crushed if it isn't," Dwight advised him, "Keep up the good work."
He patted his charge on the shoulder before exiting the Greenwoods' house. "Um, Annie, I want you to know, if it is my mom, and she does want me back..." Jesse hesitantly approached his foster mother.
"I know," she understood, "But I want you to know, if it is her and you do go back to her, Glen and I will always have an open door for you at any time. You'll always be welcome here."
She noticed Jake, who had been standing off to the side while Jesse and Dwight had been conversing. "Oh, you made a friend already," she exclaimed.
"This is Jake," Jesse gestured him forward, "He asked if it would be all right if he could sleep over tonight."
"Well of course it's all right, Jake," Annie nodded in approval, "I do have night school classes this evening, but my husband should be back no later than dinner time. Have a seat," she gestured Jake to have a seat at the table, "So what do you like to do, Jake?"
"Uh...to be honest, not much, Mrs. Greenwood," Jake confessed, "My life's kind of at a dead end right now."
"Oh," Annie mumbled sympathetically, "You think you might be interested in whales? Jesse can probably take you along on the research trips he's been offered, if you'd want to."
"I'll, uh, think it about it. They do sound interesting. So you know, though, I, uh, kind of can't swim."
"There's plenty to do on the boat, I've been told," Jesse reassured him, "You wouldn't have to get in the water."
"Good, good, I guess I can live with that," Jake nodded softly.
"What does the rest of your family do?" Annie asked him next.
"My dad's president of Perkins Sanitation," Jake said, a small tone of disgust in his voice which Jesse picked up on, "My mom, unfortunately..." he lowered his head, "She died of cancer last year."
"Oh I'm so sorry," Annie told him sadly, "That probably hurts a lot, doesn't it?"
"Yeah," Jake nodded, "I miss her a lot. I guess I lost interest in a lot of things after she died."
"I understand. Well maybe if..." Annie cut off at the sound of the front door opening again. "Annie, I'm home," Glen's voice rang out.
"Earlier than usual," his wife rose up in surprise.
"The last three customers scheduled for today cancelled, so I was able to get out early," Glen pulled his wife into a hug and kiss. "So, was I right that the first day of school wasn't as bad as you'd thought?" he turned to his foster son.
"It's still not really that good, Glen, but I'll give it a try. Biology might be good, though," Jesse told him. "This is Jake, he'll be spending the night," he introduced his new friend.
"Well, great to have you here then, Jake," Glen shook his hand, "Any friend of Jesse's is welcome here. Anything we can do with you?"
"I don't know, Mr. Greenwood. Like I told Mrs. Greenwood, I kind of don't have a lot of interests at the moment."
"Well, we'll see if we can fix that later tonight..."
"And here it comes, the dreaded ultra-low submarine pitch!" Glen tossed a baseball under his legs in the backyard towards Jake later that evening. Jake caught it on a one hop. "Here's the throw home!" he tossed it to Jesse, who caught it in the glove Glen had previously given to him. "And the runner now breaks for second!" he in turn tossed it over his shoulder to Glen, who caught it in midair.
"Better to break for second than break a window, of course, I say," Glen remarked, staring up at the sky, which was getting dark with twilight, "Looks like it's about time we call it a night, boys," he told them, "You do have class tomorrow again, after all. Hope you liked it, Jake," he told the newcomer.
"Sure did, Mr. Greenwood, thanks," Jake told him, looking happier than he'd been all day, "I actually haven't had this much fun in a while."
"I had a feeling," Glen nodded knowingly, "Like my wife said, Jake, you're welcome here any time."
Jake beamed as he handed his glove back to Glen. He followed Jesse back into the Greenwoods' house. "They are really nice people," he commended his new friend, "I can't see why you were so opposed to them at first, really."
"I was an angrier person back then, Jake; I thought all grownups were evil," Jesse admitted to him, "I was too blind to the fact that they could be cool, that they could give you wonderful things, such as this."
He dramatically opened his bedroom door. "Whoa," am impressed Jake walked over to the window and took in the impressive twilight view, "I bet you could see halfway out to sea on a real clear day from here."
"Probably," Jesse agreed. He walked up to the window and stared out into the waves, "And somewhere out there, Willy's swimming free. Hopefully to come back this way again someday."
He stared as hard as he could for any signs of life in the water, but there was none, let alone any whales. Shaking his head, he sat down on the bed and kicked off his sneakers. "I am sorry about your mother," he told Jake, who was spreading out blankets on the floor, "That must have been horrible to live through."
"It was," Jake agreed, his face scrunching up in agony at the painful memories, "The last time I saw her, it was a few days before...the end, and I could barely recognize her, so was so shrunken and pale from all the treatments they were giving her. Deep down, I guess I knew she wasn't going to make it, but I didn't want to believe it. I kept waiting for a miracle, for her to come through. It never came," he started sniffing, "It took me a few months to even start getting over it. My dad...he took it really hard too," he said somewhat evasively, "He's not all the way back yet either, and I don't know if he ever will be. So I guess we do have an understanding with our mothers not being in our lives," he told Jesse, "Although, I hope yours can come back if she's still out there."
"So do I, Jake. I've spent my whole life waiting for her to come back, and if she didn't...it might be too much for me to take," Jesse winced at the thought that perhaps his mother was gone for good, "Although, the Greenwoods would be just fine if she didn't. Never thought I'd say that at first, but I'd be all right with them."
He pulled the bed covers down and climbed in. "Anyway, if you do want to come along on the whale research trips, Rae and Randolph called yesterday to say there's an opening for me after school the day after tomorrow," he told Jake, "I think you'll really like it if you do come."
"Well, I'll give it a try; it certainly sounds like fun," Jake said with a nod, "Just tell me where and when."
"I will. Guess it's time to hit the sack, then," Jesse switched off the light. "Good to meet you, Jake Perkins," he reached down to shake Jake's hand.
"Great to meet you, Jesse Richter and Soon to be Greenwood," Jake told him with a visible grin in the darkness. He rolled over in his sleeping bag and soon was snoring softly. Jesse lay still in his bed for a moment, then climbed out and stared into the gathering darkness towards the ocean. "I'll be here waiting, Willy," he said softly to the whale, wherever he was now, "Whenever you're ready to come back, I'm right here. If you do, see if you can do for Jake what you did for me," he glanced back to his sleeping new friend, "I've got a feeling deep down he's worse than he's letting on, and he could use you. See you soon, buddy-I hope."
SEPTEMBER 10TH
"So this is the place?" Jake inquired, braking his bike to a stop behind Jesse's in front of the building on the far northern end of Dawson's Marina with a sign reading WALKER-BLECHMAN OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE above the door.
"Yep," Jesse confirmed it, locking his bike into the rack by the door, "It was here the whole time, and I never knew about it-but of course, before I met Willy, I had no reason to look for it. Looks like they're doing a lot of work on it," he noted construction workers bustling about the property with equipment in hand. "Well, after you," he held the door open for Jake. He had originally requested meeting Jake at his house after school, but Jake had been rather adamant about meeting him at the Greenwoods' instead, which was solidifying Jesse's internal concerns that something wasn't right at Jake's house that he hadn't been told about. Hopefully he'd find out the whole story soon and be able to help Jake if he needed, he thought.
"Uh, excuse us," he approached the receptionist at the desk, having to shout to be heard over the drilling and banging ringing out from the construction crew at work around them, "We're here to work with Rae Lindley and Randolph Johnson...?"
"You must be Jesse, then; I was told you were coming," the receptionist said with a smile, "They're out back waiting for you to head out."
"OK, thanks," Jesse commended her. He led Jake out the back door, and quickly saw his friends from the park standing in front of a large boat moored at the dock. They were conversing with a well-dressed man with graying hair, who turned at the sound of the dock's boarding creaking behind him. "I guess you're Jesse. Good to meet you," he bustled over and shook the boy's hand, "Randolph and Rae told me all about you. I'm Keith Walker; I purchased the institute last month and offered them jobs here after they quit Northwest Adventure Park."
"You run that big trucking and shipping company, don't you?" Jake asked him, "My dad was a truck driver when he was younger, and he'd always complain about how Walker Transportation always seemed to get the best routes."
"Well, I'm sorry we disadvantaged him in any way, son. But yes, that's me; I've amassed a fortune in shipping and trucking, and now that I'm older, I figured it's time I take the two hundred and eighty-five million dollars I've earned and put it to good use. And since I made a good part of my fortune transporting goods on the ocean, it only felt right to use my money to give back to the ocean. So I purchased the Blechman Institute here after its previous owners filed for bankruptcy, and I'm pouring a ton of money into it to make it a world class whale and marine animal research facility."
"Good. We could probably use that around here," Jesse nodded with a smile.
"I'll make sure everyone here has top equipment and facilities to study and protect marine life. Because the oceans do need our help right now-and that's nothing political, it's just the simple truth. And as for what I've heard made you interested in whales in the first place," Walker bent down to Jesse's level, "I want you to know, if Robert Dial has to sell Northwest Adventure Park, which he may very well have to do whether he's convicted at trial or not, I intend to buy it up and improve it, including making sure it has a better whale show, one that uses only whales born in captivity and with a properly sized tank for them to swim in."
"Excellent, thanks," Jesse commended Walker, "You know, Mr. Walker, before I met Willy, I thought all grownups were mean and selfish, but I'm glad to know I was wrong, that a lot of them really do care."
"Well, I think a lot of grownups today think that kids don't care either, Jesse, but from what I've heard, you've proved them wrong too. Well, I won't hold you up, since I'm sure you and your friends want to take your boat on its first voyage. Let me know how it goes, and I can arrange for any changes that need to be made," Walker told him in parting before walking down the dock into the building. "This is great," Jesse rushed to Rae and Randolph, "Now we can do anything we want for the whales around here."
"I know, it's wonderful," Rae beamed happily, "Best job I've ever taken. So who's your friend?" she gestured at Jake behind him.
"This is Jake, we met in school, and I convinced him to come along with us," Jesse introduced him, "Jake Perkins, Rae Lindley and Randolph Johnson; they helped me free Willy."
"Great to meet you, Jake," Randolph shook the other boy's hand, "You like whales?"
"Not before, no, but Jesse made them seem really interesting, so I figured I might as well come along too," Jake glanced worriedly at the boat, "Um, you do have life preservers aboard, right? I sort of can't swim..."
"Plenty of them, so don't worry about it, Jake. Well, all aboard and let's get going," Randolph declared, turning and walking towards the boat.
"All right," Jesse eagerly followed. "So, what are we going to do today?" he asked the two adults.
"Our first job is to determine the level of whale traffic going past the area in the sea lanes," Rae explained to him, leading him towards the cabin, "We're going to tag a couple of whales that do go by; Mr. Walker's paid for the institute to have access to satellite tracking technology, so we can keep track of where they go and what they do underwater."
"Uh, we're not going to hurt them when we tag them, will we?"
"Not at all; we're using tags that attach to their back with suction cups; no harm done at all," Rae held up an example.
"Wouldn't they fall off if they're just suction cups?"
"Eventually, yeah, but by then, we'll have all the information we need. The more we know about whale movements through the area here, the better we'll be able to know how to protect them."
"Great. So, you think there's a chance we might...?" Jesse just had to ask.
"Here's hoping," Willy's former trainer crossed her fingers, "But don't be disappointed if we don't see him right away, Jesse, it's a big ocean out there. You know, the old staff at the institute here had been keeping track of Willy's pod before he was caught, only they called him Siggi."
"Siggi? That doesn't seem to fit him at all," Jesse chuckled, "What did they know about him?"
"Not too much from what I could see; they really didn't have the money then to do much other than routine observations. So if we do see him again, there's a whole lot more about him that we can learn."
"Here we go," Randolph entered the cabin and started the boat's engine. "Tie us off, crew."
"Aye aye, sir," Jesse saluted him and rushed outside to untie the boat from the dock. It drifted out into the marina and made its way towards the entrance to the open ocean. Jesse took a deep breath of delight. Finally he was going to be able to make a long term difference in the world.
He froze and stared reverently at the spot of the breakwater where Willy's jump to freedom had taken place when the boat passed it. That spot would always be sacred to him from now on. He leaned towards the railing as the boat curved through the gap leading to the sea, half expecting Willy to be waiting for him on the other side. No whales at all were there, however. Sighing, he headed back to the cabin, where Jake was watching the admittedly impressive instrumentation on the control panel with interest. "So, if we don't see the whales directly, this'll help us find them?" he asked the two adults.
"This is pretty elaborate underwater sonar tracking, Jake," Rae explained to him, pointing at one control dial, "It can identify whales underwater. We're also going to drop some mobile camera stations along the coast; they'll pick up any whales that pass by here and relay their images back to the institute."
"We should get a good amount of information too; it's close to the time for the annual gray whale migration to the topics," Randolph added, steering the boat to the right past some large rocks, "I'll bet the tracking counts for them will be tremendous."
"Uh, so I know, we are safe here on this boat? It won't sink if a whale attacked it?" Jake had to ask.
"You don't have to worry about that, Jake; whales would only attack a boat if we attacked them first," Rae assured him, "Contrary to what you might see in the movies, they're peaceful creatures, and half of them around this area only eat krill."
"Krill?"
"Real small animals in the ocean; a lot of the biggest whales eat that," Jesse explained it to him, "They have plates in their mouths that filter them out of the water; it's..."
His attention was diverted by one of the consoles on the dashboard beeping. "Looks like we've got something already," Randolph stared at it, "Just one whale, but a big one, north by northwest..."
He reduced the boat's speed and turned in that direction. And then Jesse saw it: a large steel gray whale bursting out of the water ahead of them, then landing with a loud splash. "Whoa!" he exclaimed it delight.
"Whoa yeah!" Jake was equally impressed, "Now that's a whale!"
"Looks like a fin whale," Rae squinted at it, "Yeah, you can tell by the asymmetrical coloration on the right side of the head. This is the second largest whale in the world after the blue whale," she told the boys, "They're part of the group called rorquals, which include most of the largest whales."
"And you're sure they just eat that krill stuff?" Jake couldn't help taking a step back from the railing as the fin whale swam closer to the boat.
"Quite sure," the former whale trainer quickly attached a tag to a long pole. "Here, give it a try," she handed the pole to Jake, "See if you can tag it."
"Uh, OK," Jake hesitantly agreed, but his arms were shaking as he approached the railing-which he did hesitantly given his stated inability to swim. He lowered it towards the whale, but jumped back as it unexpectedly spouted air out its blowhole towards him. He collected himself and thrust it downwards again, but missed his mark, stabbing the water instead. "Let me try with you," Jesse offered, taking hold of the pole with Jake. Together they aimed for the whale's back, but missed again. Fortunately, though, the whale was moving slow enough that they were given additional chances, and on the thirst thrust managed to attach the tag to the whale's back-and not a moment too soon, as it immediately then started diving down again. "Great job," Rae commended them both, "Do we have it, Randolph?" she turned back to her partner at the controls.
"Working good, Rae, he's heading due south now," Randolph declared, watching a dot heading downwards on one radar screen.
"Good, we can keep tabs on how far he goes the next couple of days," the former whale trainer nodded. "That was great, wasn't it?" she asked both boys.
"Sure was, Rae," Jesse scanned the water for any additional fin whales, but none could be seen. "Where's the rest of his family?" he asked Rae.
"Probably somewhere else, Jesse; fin whales and most other rorquals are more solitary swimmers," she explained, "Orcas like to travel in family groups, while fin whales and their cousins usually travel alone. It depends on which whale species we see if we get more than one at a time."
"I see. Don't they get lonely, though?"
"Maybe. But maybe they've evolved into not minding. Personally, though, I prefer the more sociable whales myself; you can learn a lot more about them when they're all together than when they're alone."
"Me too," Jesse agreed; from his own recent experiences, he felt anyway that it was better to be with others than alone, the exact opposite of what he'd otherwise long believed. "Think we'll see any other fin whales here, though?" he asked Rae.
"We'll see. Head on north, Randolph," she told him, "If we're lucky, maybe there'll be even more big ones to tag."
